And this is how it goes...

Time really got away from me during the past weeks. In non-goat news I passed my license exam! So now I can practice Social Work on my own if I wanted to, which I don't but it's the top credential to have and now I only need to maintain it. I didn't get the Muckboots until a few days ago when it became imperative (due to goat-sitting in the pouring rain), but the day of my exam I did purchase a livestock enclosure for my yet-to-be-bought truck. It's metal framed wood and heavy as all get-out but it has a ramp and was under budget. Yay! Now I just have to go pick it up. And get a truck to put it on. And get some goats to haul. And a place to keep them. But my computer is bought and is being shipped right now! Over budget there. I did get some additional investment money from my paternal grandmother over the Thanksgiving holiday so that is how I am justifying the expense. Of course now I have to name a goat Elizabeth after her. In other great news - my domain name (and it's alternate) have been registered and the logo is nearly done. I am also getting a deal on some additional electric fencing from a friend who had some other livestock in the city. I think it was Juliet who laughed at me the other for having a friend with "extra livestock fencing." Humph. She's one to laugh, she said she liked the barn smell I was emitting whilst sitting in her car admiring the goats being tended. Eau de Caprine. Oooh...and I guess there are going to be 2 other Affiliates so there will be a structured training in January! I am looking forward to it even with all the "hand-on" I have been able to get being local to Tammy. I am interested to see what other people's questions and situations will be.

While this is all good news, I am feeling like I am really behind on my schedule. Which is only partly true but will be true in a matter of weeks. The holidays are slowing things down but there is also the issue of having been out of town and off of the internet for nearly 2 weeks. Thanksgiving is when I travel to the east coast and visit the family, extended and otherwise. This year my maternal grandmother, Nana, had just recently been diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. In a matter of about 2 weeks she went from driving around town to passing away. Thankfully I got to see her before she lost consciousness. I then extended my stay an additional week in order to help support my aunt and to attend the funeral. The thing is that I only had internet when I was at my father's house for just over 2 days. And it's hard to go look for a truck when you are in a different state. The extra weekend away took an emotional toll as well as time. No regrets but it may mean I get started later in March than I had hoped. I think this is what is called "unforeseen circumstances" and plans taking their own turns. Some letting go lessons here on several levels. I get all anxious to get started and forget that there is a process to getting all this going. Especially since I am having to work around a full-time job. Which may not go to part-time until the beginning of February cuz my boss needs to figure some things out. Don't get me started on his need for excessive documentation to make any kind of decision. I talked to him in September about this.

Now I do laundry, sleep in my own bed for more than 4 mights in a row and try to get a crazy amount of stuff done before the end of the year. Hanging with the goats last night and this morning especially, reminds me of why I really want to do this. Chillin' with the homie goaties is good for my soul.

Love love love

Love me some goats! Quick crazy update. Went to visit the not quite 2 month old goats at New Moon Farm this weekend and really could have spent all day hanging with them. So ridiculously CUTE! And soft! And impish! Really - it makes me shudder with the cute overload. Tonight Tammy's bit with Nightline aired and watching her publicity gets me all excited to be doing this. She makes it look easy. Meanwhile I am here fussing about which damn laptop to get and moving rapidly from grazing spots to "lease-to-own" to outright buying a dang place. I cannot imagine getting my goats and having to travel to see them etc. Especially during this coming winter with so much going on - work, setting up the biz, managing the goats themselves, and of course the weather. My to-do list is ridiculous and I am still up at nearly 1 am writing here instead of getting the sleep I need. I might need a damn valium at this rate I am so wound up. Oh - and I am goat-sitting again in Dec. so I better have my damn computer so I can get some shit done while I am there. Oh yeah, and I have my social work licensing exam in 5 days. Ask me how much studying I have done...very little. I did tonight and of course validate that I can get a passing score based on 40 some questions. There are 170 on the test. I think this is a test of patience. I think I will go buy my Muckboots after my test to reward myself. Maybe look at some property as well. Look at a truck? We'll see.

Great big decisions

I am struggling a bit I must admit. I have slacked on looking at the property in Everett where I might be able to get free grazing rights in return for managing the blackberries on the acerage. I can't imagine having to haul up 30 min to feed and socialize with the goats in the crappy weather that is supposed to come this winter and then return home 30 min away again. Part of the point of all this is really to BE WITH the goats. And I am feeling like I really want to be with them more than not as I am new to all of this. I want to make sure I am checking on them frequently and know when something might be going wrong sooner rather than later. So it looks like I may have to making a move out of the city. I have been resisting this but I really think it needs to be done. I found a listing north of Seattle which might work - but it's only an online view. The lovely Juliet has given me her real estate agents info and I have emailed him. Gotta get going on this. I need to get my laptop, my truck etc. as well before the end of the year. Working 5 days a week is really hindering this process. Although the hit to my bank account will be noticeable when I reduce my hours. Managing all the details seems a bit much but I know when I get a couple of the big things done I will feel better. The logo is being worked on, I have someone to help with the website and hosting etc. If I did move north, there are definitely people I can count on up there. I want to have an official "launching" party as well. I think that would be super fun. I keep thinking of marketing gimmicks like magnets, pens etc. The whole idea of getting my own place scares me a bit - a lot of change all at once. I guess it may just be the time to dive right in to everything! Ok. Gotta get the laptop this weekend. Get one thing done. Anything. Visit some goats. Buy my Muckboots. Maybe a pocketknife as well. Yeah...that's the ticket!

Catching Up

I hate coming up with titles...it's like coming up with the subject for an email...don't like it. Here's the haps: can't remember where I left off so I may repeat myself. About 2 weeks ago I went and helped Tammy set up fencing for a job in east bumfuck. Yes- I swear. Actually, it only took about 10 or so min to get to the strip malls so perhaps not all that far out. I like being able to do the hands on stuff when she is actually doing it for a job rather than having to "role play" this stuff. Definitely a benefit of being an early adopter - she doesn't have the training planned so I just help her do stuff and get to learn along the way. Like today I went back and was helping her with de-worming. A messy job but I always love my time with the goats.

Last weekend I went out Friday night and stayed onsite until Sunday evening while Tammy was out of town. A big thing for me was that she actually called less often than when I was only "sitting" for 6 hours. I called when I had questions but overall it seems like she was able to trust me enough to really get away and that is way cool. It was amazing how time flew by even without a computer to entertain me - hell, even my phone was out of juice for a bit. Hanging out in the country playing fetch with Pearl the Wonderdog and chillin' with da goatys was pretty much what I did. I did try reading up for my SW license exam but that kept making me snooze. Sleeping in the back on my hatchback VW was a trip. The 2nd night was much better. I am grateful for being close by enough that I can avail myself of these opportunities to do trial runs. I get to feeling more confident and Tammy gets the help she needs. Despite not being home all weekend, I didn't feel stressed or emotionally wasted. I was super sleepy - but getting used to sleeping in the car is like that. It looks like I'll have another opportunity here in December as well. Might be a little chillier but it will be closer to home as well. FUN!!!

Got the EIN #, the actual business license in the mail and the bank account with the check card with the business name on it!! I was so excited about that yesterday I was calling all kinds of people. I feel like a guber but I have to giggle a bit when I think about me being a business owner and having GOATS fer crying out loud! teehee! Had some great conversation with the other Adriene today. We are feeding off of each other with this livestock business stuff. She is looking at something way more complex with horses in Western MA but we are on similar trajectories and it makes it that much more fun for both of us. As soon as I had posted my pictures from the weekend on my Facebook page, my cousin in CA was commenting on the pics and it seems like she (and her hubby) will be coming out as soon as I get some of my own goats. Have I mentioned that I LOVE the fact that my family is so excited about all this?!?! I called my dad and got my brother as well when I was sitting in a field of goats last weekend. They had me on speakerphone and it was really awesome to be talking to both of them from "goat central" and the energy from them and between them was great.

I sometimes feel like I don't know anything and that this is going to be really hard and I get frustrated with not moving as quickly as I would like on some things. A wave of being overwhelmed passes over me. But pass it does. And when I get a nose at my butt, or a nibble on my jacket and I see those sweet rectangular pupils looking at me....well I just get all mushy. I counted out 15 goats when I was with the big herd last weekend and it really didn't seem like all that much. A big benefit of watching Tammy's herd is that mine will seem so freakin' manageable!

Bittersweet

I got the check from my father today. It's an exciting day, I have never seen a check for this much money before and I am so very grateful for it. The check is from an account that my parents shared and because checks are so rarely used anymore, this one still have my mom's name on it as well. It is both eerie and appropriate. The note my father enclosed invokes my mother as well and I become teary reading it. As much as my parents, and now my father, have annoyed me over the years, I have no doubt of their love for me and their desire for me to do well and be happy. This goatventure that I am on with the help of my family and friends feels strangely rooted in my childhood. The most rural time in New Hampshire. When we first got a goat ourselves. My mother made clothes for me. We had a big vegetable garden and she made pickles, granola, yogurt, and jam. We made tortillas together as a family and the filling always takes me back. We picked blackberries and in the spring we tapped the maple trees and my father made maple syrup over a wood-burning stove in front of the barn/garage. Our cat had kittens in a dresser drawer and the old lady down the road a field that had hay bales in it every year. My brother and the neighbor kids (there were a few) adventured into woods following stone walls made in seemingly ancient times. We tasted clover and rubbed buttercups on ourselves for the heck of it. Looking back it was such an innocent and simple time for me as a kid and I think there is a part of me that is seeking that simplicity again in this venture. And in some ways a connection back to a time when I unabashedly loved my parents and needed their protection and security. When I felt safe and secure. It's so strange what all a simple check in the mail can bring up.

Proof in the Pudding!

This is it people! The actual document! Funny how filling out the Master Business License os so much more challenging than this one was. DO I or don't I want Worker's Compensation? How do I fill that out? What category does using goats for brush management fall under? Soil remediation? Land clearing? Oy! Crazy stuff! Even the SCORE consultant has to research it. Funny too how the other day I was talking to to one of the owners of the cupcake shop I go to and he was asking me if I knew about the SBA office down the street. Of course I do! And wholeheartedly referred him there. They have been open almost 1 1/2 years and he wants someone to look over the financials and make sure they are reasonable etc. They are hoping to be making a profit by May 2011 - 2 years. Although the profit didn't look very big for this business the first year - it was definitely there. whew!
Then last night I was talking to my friend in FL and she just had her 1st meeting with her SCORE consultants about her horse boarding/ activity center and she was stoked about it! She has a class on Equine Business Management next quarter and she will have the jump on it. Plus she is going to forward anything useful in terms of spreadsheets etc. to me as well. And I put her in touch with my cousin who is practically running a boarding stable in Western PA by herself - so there is lots of mutual support happening across the states.
The other really funny thing is that now that people I know are hearing all about my business, they are hearing about goats all over the place. A colleague this morning just told me about how she was talking with either a neighbor or a friend about how they were going to get this other outfit to come out with goats and she suggested waiting for me! Hahahaha! This other outfit is the one that denied leaving behind a goat from a job last month in a neighborhood near me. I will be the better "goat lady."
I also went a couple feed stores the other day and can't wait to go back with the money to actually buy the stuff! I tried on a pair of Muck Boots and they are more comfy than my Doc Martens. wheee! I really can't wait to get these few things done this month so that I can start focusing on the truck and the land for the goats. Not that I'm not doing some of that now, but I really want this other stuff done before so that I can focus better. Too many things competing for my attention at the same time. And I got the manual from Tammy as well - yay! Some things still missing but hopefully together we can make it even more kick-ass.

Got it!

Today I got the email saying that Amazin' Grazers is now registered as an LLC with the State of WA and I have a UBI number! My official certificate should be coming next week. I had to call my dad I was so excited! I am going to be overusing exclamation marks throughout this post - be warned...I really am this excited! Dad is super excited too and he and his wife watched the Colbert Report where Tammy and Rent-A-Ruminant were featured and said it was "side-splitting." I watched it last night with a couple of friends after work and we laughed our assess off as well. My brother got to posting it before me and that was cool. Next is the Nightline piece, less hilarious but more informative I'm sure.
My next step is the business license and I got the manual from Tammy today in the mail! Gonna get in my jammies with some hot tea and work the computer. Tomorrow I will be off to check out farm stores with my buddy Juliet and maybe look at a pasture site and some trucks as well. GOt the word out for folks to send me logo ideas and then business cards and the website in Nov. I've got a couple of friends that I am going to do "trial runs" with when I get the goats so that I get some practice setting up and loading/unloading the goats so that I don't look like a complete idiot with my first paying customer. Also to get a real sense of how long it takes the goats I get to clear an area of brush, everything is so theoretical right now and I learn best by actually doing it. Like in Social Work we did practicums so we did the work while under specific supervision to learn by actually doing. Medical folks have residencies etc. as well. So one of these friends I had dinner with tonight and she suggested having a sign like landscapers or roofers or painters do to put on a front lawn so that passers-by can see who is doing the work. I can see it now - "Amazin' Grazers - Goats At Work". Especially in places where the goats may not be that visible from the street, it would be a great way to advertise and that's another benefit to doing the trial runs. Get people talking and seeing what's afoot! Word-of mouth is great advertisement. Friends are already hitting me up for rates etc. on Facebook so I'll definitely need something up and running with some info on it by the end of November.

I am actually having a good time doing all of this start up work so far. Getting the LLC information today is so cool because it is tangible evidence that this is happening, fer real. And I really like tangible. I can't wait to get my hands on some goats and start bonding with them! Oh the cuteness!

Take off!

I could just pee I am so excited! I just filed the "paperwork" to incorporate as an LLC under the name Amazin' Grazers. I should have the official paperwork in about a week. From there I get my business license for the State of WA and my Federal Tax ID number....holy crap it's happening! Six months ago I had no idea what the hell I was going to do with my life and couldn't think of anything I wanted to do as a business and here I am! I am feeling adrenaline or something. I haven't been excited about much of anything in so long I think I forgot what it felt like.

My cousin called me today as well. She is the one in PA who essentially runs a horse farm/ boarding facility and she called out of the blue to offer her knowledge to me! Yay! I love my family! I can't even eat I am so excited (now THAT's rare!). As soon as I posted on Facebook that I had submitted the paperwork, a friend posted that she knew someone who wants the rates! This really could be something! My friend Juliet mentioned as I was leaving her house the other day that she loves farm stores and I so need to go check some out. Outing! She sent me links as I was driving home.

If I wasn't so excited I might feel overwhelmed. I know that's it's work but it is starting to feel like it's just flowing now.

Excited!

I am getting all excited again! This week has been super stressful at my day job but some cool things are happening. I met with the SCORE guy on Thursday morning and he said I am doing really well. Funny how I get more praise from a guy I have met 3 times than from the boss I have had for 7 years....that day was particularly horrible on the job - and nothing to do with the homeless, drug addicted, mentally ill clients I see. Friday I talked to Tammy and although we aren't going to meet until next week, I am all excited after talking to her. Apparently she is getting calls for small jobs and she is telling them to call back next year! I am (in reference only) mentioned in the coverage she got in the Vashon paper. We also talked about me getting some hands on experience with innoculations and hoof-trimming and me helping her set up a job as well as actually caretaking for her so she can get a couple days off while on that job. I could pee myself I am so excited! 3 days overnight with a bunch of goats? Seriously? Who knew this was my idea of heaven?!
I was at a party the other night and was talking to someone i hadn't had contact with in quite a while and talking to her and her husband about the goat idea got them excited and me all wound up again. And I was talking to my dad today and he seems almost as excited as I am -and he's the one with the dough! 6 months ago I had no idea what I was going to do to get any kind of relief from my job, now I am planning on 15 goats and my own business. My heart is just overflowing with gratitude for my circumstances.
Tomorrow I head up to Arlington with my cousin to help out at New Moon Goat Rescue & Sanctuary. Gotta get my goat fix.

Practical vs Creative

So today I today I have been searching banks. I need one to have my business account at, one that might be able to do small business loans if I need in the future but hopefully not a huge conglomerate. All this research! With a full-time stressful job and a life and...and....and....ah the glory of small business start-up. Gotta get out and research trucks, places to keep the goats, a vet, a laptop, broadband service, banks, yowza! I feel like I am chanting like the little engine that could on this and I know that I am not even putting in the level of effort I need to yet. This is all the practical stuff. I still need need a name for the biz.

So I post possible names in a note on Facebook and send out an email to many people to do rankings and then I shall choose. And then there's the logo, the website woohoo! Thank goodness I know creative people who can help with all this. I am thinking I need to start advertising in Dec which is only 2 months away!! This is the fun part, the part that gets me all jazzed. This and hanging with the goats of course.

Now off to do some household maintenance so that I can focus on this other stuff!

Keep On Truckin'

There is so much to do. Dad and I figured out when & how much money he is giving/loaning me. I have projected out Year 2 totals on a spreadsheet. I have asked to reduce my hours come the beginning of the year. I am looking at how to leverage some dinky retirement accounts for more money. I am trying to figure out how to get out of work on Monday night so that I can go to a farmers function. teehee. A farmer's function. That sounds so silly. Oh I need to send out the email about the names for the business for one last go round of input. I want to smell the hay and dirt. I want things to be simpler. The complexities and ever-changing rules about my job are like pumice stone on my soul.
The questions that keep coming up for me are not only around getting a business together at all but also what needs to be different because of the nature of the business. I am going to talk to Tammy more next week and I am need to get clear about what I need from her in order to really be putting things in place. I really need to start working the goats in March and I get nervous that I am somehow being lazy and won't get it all ready by then. In some ways it seems so simple but then there are details and things that take time to get done - like finding a place for the goats. This is my big hang-up right now. I am starting to feel like I am not doing enough in the this area. But I am not really sure where to start. That's not entirely true. I did come up with some ideas with my coach. But I have to act on them.One would be getting Monday night off of work so that I can go mingle with farmers. In West Seattle of all places.

Ok. Gotta figure out what my next step is - I thought I had it earlier but it escapes me now.

Just Breathe

Ok...I am back from the brink. I realized that this is really all part of the process of being first...not everything is in place and numbers get added weird until they are all laid out. I was able to print out some stuff Tammy sent the other day and it makes much more sense than trying to look back and forth on the computer. Having a real calculator helps too, technology is great and all but sometimes you just need pages laid out in front of you and a calculator that isn't on a screen to make it all work. I think that panic is part of the process as well, the process of starting any new business. I have a start point for the business, but you know, I won't start until I have it good to go(at).
Bad puns I think are part of this particular process as well. It's interesting to see how I go about things. Especially with Facebook, I have ways of soliciting people I know for all kinds of information and feedback. But do I really need all of that information? Am I not capable of figuring things out myself? Isn't this my thing? I think that some of the panic I felt last night is also about doing this on my own...this really is my thing, my business, my work that will make it happen. I am like that in general, always looking for what others think, soliciting opinions and discounting or giving short shrift to or failing to really look at what I want and think.I don't trust my own creativity in this. Of course some of it is really fun - like brainstorming names for the business. Do I really 20 opinions on which laptop to get? Not so much.

That's enough for now.

Freaking Out

Ok. I am doing all the stuff that Ed from SCORE told me to do and projecting out through Dec. 2011 and it looks like my profit is less than 8k - not exactly what other numbers were showing before. I don't think I have all the expenses in. Granted it's only using the goat 12 days a month but right now that's all I can envision with maintaining my current job at 32 hrs/week. I am questioning, for the first time, if I can really pull this off. Part of my whole thing with this venture is to ratchet down my stress and right now it's gone up again. I really think that part of this is that I need more from Tammy - it's not really fair to put this affiliate option out there and not have more stuff ready to go. I know I don't have all the money for her right now but I am serious about this and feel kind of like I don't have all the information that others will have prior to making a commitment. Maybe it's just that I only projected into year one. Maybe I need to work fewer hours and do more goat business. Maybe it's just that this is scary and unknown. I might be doubting myself.

The beginning

This is where it all starts. I am creating this space for several reasons: 1) to document my own journey into livestock, 2) to give the woman I am learning from a place to see my progress and 3) somewhere that other potential affiliated can come and see my journey from a no-nothing to a serious something!

I have been doing Social Work for 20 years and I am only in my early 40s. I got my MSW in '95 but have been working in edge of the mainstream jobs since before graduating college. Currently I have been doing social work with injection drug users in Seattle through the public health department. It has been by far the most stable and best paying job I have ever had. For the first few years I was convinced that I would never leave this job. I love working with the homeless, mentally ill, disenfranchised drug users. The systems are what have been dragging me down. And the cumulative effect of witnessing the trauma on people's lives. I have lost several people that meant a lot to me in my personal life as well as some clients, and after finally getting another SW to work beside me - she had to take off 6 months for a pregnancy and with all of the drama of funding cuts etc.; I was completely drained by the time she came back in June of 2010. But decisions were already stewing by that time.

I have not been so good at managing my own self-care and at some point late last year or early this year I can recall saying to myself that all I really wanted to do was to hang out with goats all day. I believe I had already "friended" Rent-A-Ruminant on Facebook. In March, a conversation with my boss enlightened me that my current job was never going to significantly change from what it was at this time and I realized that although I was perfectly competent, I no longer wanted to do this job in this way and knew that changes had to be made.

I started setting goals - like to have some decision made by the end of 2010 re: the job. I started looking for a job/life coach. I talked to people I knew about my frustration and started writing some things down...never mentioning goats. In late May there was a post on the R-A-R page about a new venture to have Affiliates. It was as if a freakin' light bulb went off in my head! What? Someone will train me to hang out with goats? Seriously? So I emailed for more info. I read it and thought about it. Why do I have to pay money to start my own business? Oh yeah...training and a link to a respected person in the business. Duh. Like going back to school for a certificate in something or another. Ok but I have no savings at all, debt from a life of Social Work, and I live in the city. So off I go to hang out with Tammy - Chief Goat Wrangler - and pick her brain about all this. She's on a job and only half-there due to some medical issues with a couple goats who found some poisonous rhododendren that she hadn't seen. But we talked a bit and I got to hang out and pet healthy goats. It was a calm I haven't felt in a long time.

She moves the goats to another site and a friend from out of town is visiting and I want another opinion on the whole thing and she has time so we head out on a weekday and visit again. Some more chatting with Tammy - more answers to questions. Lyn gets a good feel from her (as do I) so that is encouraging. I send Tammy more questions by email, which she answers. And a week or so later my father is in town so I bring him by yet another site - a smaller site. He gets to see the goats in action and meet Tammy and ask questions. He knows I am thinking about this venture but he doesn't know how serious I am. I am also prepping him because I know that he would get a kick out of this business idea and he wants me out of my current job badly so I am softening him up to possibly get a loan from him at some point.

I think at this point I am about to start with the coach - someone from NY who has worked with a friend of mine and even though I am moving closer to this goat rental affiliate business idea - I still haven't committed anything yet. This is the beginning of July. Every time I see the goats I get a huge grin on my face. They crack me up. My family had a goat when we lived in New Hampshire and I was very young. All my cousins in one family raised goats for 4-H. It is not unheard of in my family to love livestock. One of these same cousins works for a barn that houses racing horses for folks in western PA.

Mere weeks later I once again find Tammy and her goats under the viaduct by the Pike Place Market in Seattle. It is Tuesday. I tell her that I am done stalking her and I want in on this thing. For real. I am hooked. I have no idea how I am going to pull this off but I want to very badly. I can't stop thinking about the damn goats. But I need some financial information to move forward. She needs to get it together for others as well and will get in touch with her small business guy who works through SCORE and it is a FREE service! She will also find out is he will work with me as well. She lets me inside the electric fence and once again I am overwhelmed with the goat love!

Friday that same week. My dear friend Juliet meets me after work and I bring her along to see the goats there on the urban hillside. I am amazed at how much work they have gotten done in just a few days. There has been a lot of press about them as well. Tammy isn't there at first but shows up as we are leaving...so we stay a while. Then the SCORE guy shows up with his wife and son. Tammy is regaling us with tales from previous jobs. I am so sure that this is what I want but I also know that I will not be leaving my current job soon - I need the security and health insurance. But Tammy keeps saying that it's possible to do part-time. I still don't have the financial information from Tammy but shortly after this I am invited to a meeting she has with Ed (SCORE guy) and that helps get some perspective.

Where tha hell am I gonna keep 15 goats? How much will it cost? Am I crazy? Am I going to look to rent a place to live that has enough room for goats? How do you search for that on Craigslist? What about boarding goats like people do for horses? Goats are sneaky though. Will I be able to find a place that's close enough to the city so that working isn't a humongous commute? A woman from college I re-connected with at our 20th reunion is doing a similar chnge of life around horses and she is getting a degree in FL as I write this. We are talking about the crazy shit we think about - saving the world through farm animals! Really. I'm not kidding. We are both doing it for our own mental health and to make the world a better place.

I have my own meeting with Ed. I need to get more info from Tammy. She still doesn't have anything "official" for me - I am the guinea pig for the Affiliate program she is still developing. I have gotten "Raising Goats for Dummies" from Amazon; I take Goats 101 through New Moon Goat Rescue and Sanctuary and provide an initial link for Tammy and Ellen. I am also hearing from others at the class about the bad reputations of other rental goat grazing outfits - official businesses - not just random people on Craigslist. I should mention that in this process I have also called Craig of Healing Hooves out of eastern WA. He is often in the papers with Tammy on big jobs and seems to have a good reputation as well. He also gives negative feedback on the other outfits and positive to Tammy. I keep feeling more confident that going with Tammy is the right decision. What Tammy tells me concurs with the book concurs with Ellen. And a thumbs up from Craig. That is a good sign.

I go to Vashon in early Sept. to meet up with Tammy so I can get some stuff done for Ed. She still doesn't have anything official for me but I give her a small check as a token of my intention to keep the ball rolling. It's all very fluid at this point which is good but also a little frustrating because I feel like I am not "all in." We haven't signed anything and we don't really have a payment plan going on for real yet. I know she doesn't have some stuff done and I don't have the money to pay her yet but....I want to be moving on it. Tammy's sister is excited and thinks we should do something about the whole "becoming an affiliate" using me. I just want to go see the goats. She does take me to her herd. I get to hang with the goats and again am filled with the peace that comes from animals nuzzling and munching and playing. 120 of them.

I have volunteered out at New Moon and gotten a suggestion for how to find land. My father has offered to be an investor and we are now working out how much and what involvement he will have. I may have a line on another possible place to keep the goats. And I am further working on stuff for Ed. It's challenging to keep on top of all this while working full-time but I do believe it's what is keeping me at all sane at work. Knowing that in about 6 months I will be taking my own goats out to clear brush and get paid for it. It is surprising to me that it really only took me a little over 2 months to get sure about doing this when prior to the post about the Affiliate program I was fishing around with no thoughts of goats. For me I usually think about stuff way more before jumping in (which is what this feels like), and my only explanation is that I have been working on getting to this place for about 2 years and had finally opened my myself up for seeing what appeared in front of me. And my gut tells me it's right.